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tv   Lou Dobbs Tonight  FOX Business  December 5, 2012 7:00pm-8:00pm EST

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nationwide. somebody's buying this stuff. it's not me. i'm not spending that money on coffee, people. i hope you're not either. coming up tomorrow, what was once a dark spot in the economy is becoming the shining star in the recovery. why the quick turn around? that's all for on the. thanks for joining us. have a great night. see you right back here tomorrow. ♪ lew: good evening, everybody. u.s. foreign policy in the middle east in question at this hour. violence spiring out of control in syria after 20 months of civil unrest and the deaths of at least 40,000 murdered civilians at the hands of their own government. united states and nato agreeing to deploy patriot weapons and to
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thwart an aso-called by assad. the missile systems to be positioned near the syria. his staff denies that and estimates if they were deploy troops, it requires 75,000 of the troops in a full ground invasion in order to seize the chemical weapon stockpile. fox news confirming they were not ordered to draft the consideration of such a mission. secretary of state clinton is nonetheless talking very tough calling for assad to step down as the obama administration has done for the past 15 months, but refusing, still, to detail which consequences those would be. >> we will explore with like-minded countries what more
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we can do to bring the conflict to an end, but that will require the assad regime making the decision to participate in a political transition, ending the violence against its own people, and we hope that they do so because we believe, as you know, that their fall is inevitable, but it's a question of how many people will die until that day occurs. lou: the violence, and morsi protesters in the street, and large scale clashes, worst of the violence since morsi proposed his powers. a third of the aides resigned
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now, and more than 225 injured in the clashes since they broke out. turning to the president and his views, steering clear of my public statements on egypt or morsi or the administrations, but jay carney responded to a question on the administration's actions on the turmoil, a scripted response that he clearly wrote word for word. a two-way dialogue with an exchange of the egyptian people themselves, about their constitutional process, and the substance of the constitution. the egyptian people want and deserve a process that's open, transparent, fair, and does not unfavor one group over any other. democracy depends on strong institutions and important checks and balances that provide accountability. we note that demonstrations supporting both sides of the issues have been large and
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generally peaceful. lou: a careful and scripted response. the director of national intelligence today showed congress the video proving the obama add -- administration misled the american public on benghazi. there was a classified video of the attack presented to the house arms services committee. that video showed an attack by heavily armed terrorists who breached the compound in benghazi within just minutes. we have the full report here tonight straight ahead. among the guests, former u.s. ambassador to the united nation, john bolten, judith mill eric and ed qlien. we begin with the closed door briefs on benghazi that lawmakers say raises more questions than ever that the obama administration insisted the attack was the response of a demonstration prompted by rage
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over an anti-islam video. fox news correspondent with the latest on what lawmakers saw and heard today from the country's top intelligence officials. >> the closed classified briefing brought together seen your state department, intelligence, and counterterrorism officials for a report on the three-month old investigation into the benghazi terrorist attacks. >> to the degree there was planning involved, something done over days, weeks, or over hours? no indication of long term planning here. >> the attacks cronology was laid oillet in a multimedia presentation with drone surveillance and video from the consulate of the cia and annex. >> this is supposed to be sovereign u.s. territory, and if people walk in on us like that without resistance really makes your blood boil because you think to yourself what's the security? >> a video was shown to the committee last month, but this
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is the first time the presentation was made to the entire house. one lawmaker who asked not to be identified who said in the classified naturr of the breech r, the video who assess because the attacker is casual. fox news told james clapper, the nation's top intelligence official emphasized, the attacker's motivation unknown, and there was further questions about the obama administration's singular and immediate focus on the anti-islam video? >> why did you just focus on that part for so long rather than say, look, it's not a black and white issue. >> one of the motivations may very well be either the video, the response to the video in cairo, and, certainly, that's not ruled out. >> fox news has confirmed the decision to shut down the cia annex was made in the early morning hours of september 12th after it took indirect fire, and while the annex was cleared of classified material and
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equipment in less than ten hours, the consulate less than a mile away has never been secured, lou. lou: we hear very little about who made the decision not to respond with military, para-military forces to support, and perhaps save, four americans who were killed in the attacks. >> well, here privately on capital hill from lawmakers, they wondered if the president meant there were not the assets available in the mediterranean to respond quickly. what we're seeing in the next few weeks, soon with open hearings the public can watch on capital hill, is a refocusing on this -- this -- this military response, pardon me, and then also the security failure before the attack and culpability of the state department because there was multiple warning and calls for help that were denied,
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and the security was further drawn down in benghazi, lou. lou: extraordinary. thank you very much. >> you're welcome. lou: joining me now, former u.s. ambassador not united nations, john bolten, judith miller, both fox news contributors. let me begin, if i may, with what's happening with this -- what's happening with morsi and this arab spring that was supposed to be blossoming and no response, no statement from the white house of any kind directly, significantly meaningful on what's happening. i mean it's frustrating to say the least. >> not surprising, lou, begin the president morsilini as he's now called in egypt, understands that for the americans all that matters is egypt's continued
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adherence to the peace treaty with israel, and as long as they don't throw that into the water, into the nile and flush it down the dam, everything's going to be forgiven. it was only a day, a day after the cease fire announcement that president morsi took these extraordinary actions and made the power grab that's not alienated so many in his own government and in the country. lou: john, your thoughts? in support of what judy said, carney, reading, as you saw there -- >> talking points, cia provided talking points. lou: saying the president worked effectively with president morsi on key issues including the gaza negotiations. that suffices to require that the president be quiet on this? >> well, it clearly crossee morsi's mind he could do what he
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wanted after the cease fire which is why he took that opportunity, and he's proceeding in a very methodical fashion over opposition in the streets to hold this referendum on his sharia friendly constitution on the 15th. lou: the muslim brotherhood who said would not participate in the political process, and morsi said he would not run for president, now firmly in power, and the administration is unsurprised and unwilling to respond, react, or in some kind initiative. >> well, here's the next point. it is the case that the military in egypt remains friendly to the united states. lou: i'm putting a lot less of a preview on that after what we witnessed over the last couple years. >> hang on. what's happening on is morsi puts generals, sympathetic to the brotherhood in leadership position. they are facilitating the
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takeover that will threaten the camp david accord which is why the administration's silence is inexcusable. lou: not silent on syria. we heard these rumblings out of the administration and the foreign policy apparatus of this government for 15 months saying assad must go. doing absolutely nothing. 40,000 people murdered, and then, unbelievably, the secretary of state today saying that this, you know, the point of which we reach some sort of resolution depends on how many people the assad regimements to kill. are you kidding me? >> they don't know what to do. on this, lou, i have to defend -he administration. it's hard to know what to do in a situation which is now as chaotic as syria. i mean, look -- lou: should we only assign foreign policy masters in the state department and white house then easy, simple tasks they are resolve? >> no, i just think there's some
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foreign policy challenges more complex than others, and this is a hard one. we armed the libyans and know some of those weapons went to the very people blowing up american embassies and targets. lou: radicals, extremists, terrorists. the administration will not use that term. >> they misread it thinking the russians would help ease assad out of power. there's a broader problem. syria, egypt, libya, yemen, iran's nuclear program, that in a short period of time, you could see this whole thing begin to spin out of control. it would only take a precipitated incident, i'm not saying like an incident, but it's dangerous for us and our friends in the region. lou: thank you very much. we went through the entire discussion without mentioning iran and israel.
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thank you very much, judy. appreciate it. much more on unrest in egypt, syria, and the president's response throughout the broadcast here tonight. who does he think he's kidding? the president waging class war fare. >> i can't ask folks who are, you know, middle class, seniors who are on medicare, young people who are trying to get student loans to go to college. i can't ask them to sacrifice and not ask anything of higher income folks. lou: great news on the economy, will higher taxes screw it up? two of the best economic thinkers join us, deutsche bank senior u.s. correspondents will be here joining us next. detroit on the edge of bankruptcy as city councilwoman with a rather direct, plain spoken solution saying it's simple. the city voted for obama.
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lou: treasury secretary today said the obama administration is now willing to go over the fiscal cliff. moody's chief economist, deutsche bank senior u.s. economist telling us just how much that will hurt the economy and the markets, and, of course, investors and everyone in this country in today's money lineup, news on the economy brought life to wall street today inspiring some investors, the news an unexpected increase in factory orders up for a second straight month, and the biggest gains in productivity in the third quarter in two years.
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business activity, along with new orders, showing their biggest gains last month since the first quarter. stocks finished off their highs. the dow up 83 appointments at the close. the s&p gaining 2.25, and the nasdaq under the weight and pressure of the biggest stock, apple, dropping 23 points. volume today rising to almost 4%.2 billion shares. app 8 stock, as i said, today, laggerred and immense weight on the mark. that stock fell 6.5%, $37, and concerned about the lack of new products on the horizon, concern increased competition in the market might force apple to cut margins to remain competitive that added up to apple's worst decline in four years. the selling is continuing. after hours trading, the -- today's selling, however, the stock remains up 35 #% so far
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this year. now, that puts a 6% decline in some perspective, doesn't it? what you're looking at is people, perhaps, moving to get ahead of the obama administration's new and highly unattractive tax plan for investors. big winners on the day, financials, citi group stock up after announcing they are laying off 4% of the work force, cutting cost, bank of america and travelers example of the financialses moving higher. marathon, chevron, conoco all higher. crude oil down for a second straight day closing under 88 a barrel, and ten year treasury down to 1.59%. no progress in resolving the fiscal cliff today. i know, you're not surprised by that, but we can report there were, well, some contact between the two principle players in the negotiations if there were
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negotiations. president obama and speaker john boehner actually talked to one another. it was on the telephone. it was not the face-to-face meeting the speaker says is necessary, but it was the first time that the two men have spoken in a week. for the latest on these stalled negotiations, we turn to fox news chief white house correspondent ed henry for the report. >> trying to lay blame for stalled budget talks on republicans, president obama today wratcheted up pressure on boehner. >> nobody wants this done more than me. >> for the first time, plan for massive spending cuts from going over the fiscal cliff warning business executives, the economy could take another hit if republicans decide to extend just to middle class tax cuts to avoid the cliff for now and come back next year with more leverage to tie spending cuts and medicare reform to another hike in the nation's debt
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ceiling. >> we're not going to play that game next year. if congress, in any way suggests they tie negotiations to debt ceiling votes, and take us to the brink of default again as part of a budget negotiioion, i will not play that game. >> republicans held their meeting with small business owners and denied they are trying to punt until next year. >> i'll be here. i'll be available at any moment to sit down with the president to get serious about solving the problem. >> they noted the president has not scheduled any meetings with g.o.p. leaders in weeks and not offered a counterproposal to boehner's plan from last week. >> frankly, it was the balanced approach the president's been asking for. we need a response from the white house. >> reporter: the president continues to envies the only impediment to the deal is boehner's $800 million in tax revenue is not enough. >> the hold upright now is that speaker boehner took a position,
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i think the day after the campaign, that said we're willing to bring in revenue, but we're not willing to increase rates. >> two summers ago, the president, himself, claimed he could raise more revenue without raising rates. >> give us $11.2 -- $1.2 trillion in revenues, without hiking tax rates, but could be accomplished by eliminating loopholes, some deductions, and engaging in a tax reform process that could have lowered rates generally broadening the base. >> now, officials confirm that the president and the speaker spoke by phone this afternoon, first time they had any contact in days. no major progress to report, but one aide i spoke to, briefed on the call said, look, this is more than we've seen in a long time, but that's not a lot of progress to really hang on and get any sense that they are
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really moving forward here, lou. lou: thank you very much. ed henry, chief white house correspondent. up next, tax hikes, overspending, uncertainty, fiscal cliff threatening the economy, but maybe not? we take it all up with moody's chief economist, and deutsche bank senior economist here next. stay with us.
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lou: you know, it may surprise some that december is historically the strongest month for investors. the s&p500 posting gains in december, 82% of the time since 1990. it's that 18% that should trouble folks, but are concerns with the fiscal cliff giving investors a reason to be less than optimistic? joining me is john, and carl, senior economist for deutsche
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bank. gentlemen, thank you for being here. start with the treasury secretary. the man in charge of our treasury is out telling everyone that the administration he works for is a part of is perfectly prepared to go over the fiscal cliff in order to raise a tax rate to 39.6%. does that make any sense to you? are you shocked, surprised? >> well, i guess i'm not surprised given we're in the early stages of the discussion, but for the economists and forecasters out there calling this is the fiscal slope, not a cliff or believe it's worthwhile to go over the cliff, it's not the case. it is, without a doubt, a cliff. it's $600 billion. the economy cannot withstand that shock. it's slowing in anticipation. lou: $600 billion in taxes? >> spending reductions and tax increases. the economy can't handle that. without a doubt, head into recession if we're over the
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cliff. lou: now, are you in agreement? >> i am, carl's absolutely right, nevertheless, the markets have effectively been yawning. equity markets, go higher, corporate credit market improves, commodity prices rising, and the ten-year treasury yield is dipping to new lows. i can't figure this out. everybody seems to -- lou: i know -- >> they are in a mood, and that worries me. somebody has to be wrong, and big time. >> yawning until they don't. that's the concern. lou: i know this would be stunning and alarming to economists who would never contemplate themselves being wrong on this, but is this some possibility that everyone is wrong about this? that these are actually men and women of good will in both parties who are beginning to come together in one great warm embrace sometime before christmas day and give the nation such a great boost of spirit of good will and reach agreement here? >> i don't know if we're going
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to see that sense of brotherhood or sisterhood any time soon in washington. i'm still convinced they are not going to come to an agreement on the fiscal cliff unless compelled to do so by an adverse external event like a sharply lower equity market. lou: and is, you know, i can't imagine a market ever going down as john is suggesting here simply because a government chooses not to function. >> well, if it means we're headed into recession, the markets will react. in a typical bear market, stocks sell off by 20%. it's great to have a compromise before the year end, but time is running out. it's not possible. lou: how is it that a treasury secretary responsible for the integrity of the markets, the currency, responsible, indeed, for the financial system of this country, largely, broadly, and
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internationally, would sink to the level of a political operative making statements about we're going over the fiscal cliff and we're ready to go. >> the president put him in charge of the negotiations from his point of view. lou: clever. >> he's wearing two hats at this point in time. consider here, yes, there's a big complicated negotiation that needs to take place, but there's very low hangs fruit. there's easy low hanging fruit. lou: nothing complicated about this, may i say that, carl? >> nobody can agree. lou: $16 trillion in debt, for which we're responsible. there is a $1 trillion -- $1.04 trillion deficit this year, fifth year in a row we have this kind of number. we're going to, as folks used to say when i was a young fellow, this country's going to hell in a hand basket if we don't get our act together. >> and right now, we still have
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time. dollar's not falling. we don't have treasury bond yields soaring through the roof lou: the euro is rising against the dollar. isn't that embarrassing? >> that's not a concern to the administration or congress. lou: we should say to hell with the sound dollar. let's em brails strong competitiveness. last i looked at the trade deficit, we were, again, lagging and uke sucking popped water. there's a rising deficit stripping our gdp. >> and right now europe is in a relatively deep recession. we're still above water. lou: you jumped all over the punch line because you talk about things not making sense. folks, this is not making sense. i'm delighted because people have wealth left in the equities market, the bond market. how long will that be the case
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if we go over the cliff? >> won't be the case for long if we have a recession followed by a typical bear market. lou: how long to get to recession -- >> we can get there pretty quick. in fact, some of the down downdrafts are starting to form. we saw those in the q3 gdp numbers were sinking into @%ntraction. lou: 2.7 -- >> employment reports gnar november and december, not surprised if gains in private sector payrolls are well over 100,000 new jobs. lou: that would not be good. baseline at least, i think, for passable is 125. what's your judgment? >> about the same, okay, that's a c-minus grade, get a "c" if we hit 150. lou: might say a "d" looks good. thank you for being here. more ahead taking that and
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politics of it all with the a-team next. speaker boehnerments to -- boehner wants to talk face to face with the president, and the president wants to talk to no one. teaching students everything a student should never become, the union uses a cartoon to talk taxes. you decide, is this teacher's union all wet? after months of campaigning for the president, bill clinton and the president should be best of friends; right? ed, author of "the amateur" says his sources say they are anything but. ♪
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standoff between president obama and the republicans as, quote, just a kabooky dance, two dogs that meet each other over a piece of meet, sniffing each other out, and moving towards a deal. with that elegance in mind, we welcome author of "the amateur," best selling author we have to say. friction here. that's not a helpful thing to say. i mean, he's not talking higher taxes, but dog sniffing which probably does -- may not offend the participants, i don't know. there's a little problem between the white house and mr. clinton. >> before i came on your show tonight, i spoke with sources who are very close to bill and hillary clinton, and they told me that bill clinton and barack obama ave had a major falling out. lou: wow, after all the
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campaigning? the elegant speech, really? >> because of this estrangement, i'm told, is back to the presidential election when clinton struck a deal with obama. in the deal, clinton said he'd give the nominating speech and go out and campaign for obama, but in return, he wanted a couple things from the president. first, clinton wanted to be a allowed to name the next chairman of the democratic national committee to have effective control of the party apparatus and all the money that goes with that. lou: that's a big gift. >> well, he did a big deal for obama. lou: right. >> secondly, he wanted obama to agree that he would back hillary if she runs for president in 2016, and that was a verbal commitment he believed he had from barack obama. shortly after the election, according, again, to my sources,
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clinton sent obama a list of five names from which he could choose the next chairman of the democratic national convention. lou: a list from clinton to the president? >> all his guys, or in some cases, his women. lou: do you know who's on the list? >> i don't know the names on the list, but the people on the list, i'm told, were completelyignored -- completely ignored, and clinton learned that none of his people were even vetted or given serious consideration. clinton then learned, as we all did, that barack obama had reid appointed, wasserman-s crarks hulz, his woman, his lady, to the chair of the democratic national committee. what did he do? clinton phoned the president wants to complain about this and speak to the white house.
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speak to the president. the white house did not put his call through, and he never heard from the president for 24 hours. lou: i love the way you constructed that. the white house didn't put the call through. you didn't say the president declinedded to take the call. >> finally got a call, and an answer from, of all people, david axlerod, senior counselor to the president, and clinton refused to take the call, absolutely, according to my sources, was enraged. this is interesting, i think, according to hillary clinton, bill was red in the face and breathless, and she feels so worried about him that he might have a heart attack that she called in a doctor to the home. he refused to take the sedative. lou: where is the support for secretary clinton in 2016? what is -- what -- what options does bill clinton have?
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>> good question. finally, the president called clinton. they did speak, according to my source, and of all things, obama said, reading from my notes now, that he was not convinced he should support hillary clinton, that it was too early to make a decision. clinton was absolutely dome struck. he thought he had a deal. lou: not to make a commitment. >> hillary clinton told friends he put his head in his hands, and as i thought about it, the upshot is the master politician was screwed by the man he once called "the amateur." >> ed cline had to get there. thank you so much. we appreciate it. fox news digital politics editor joining us tomorrow to talk about politics, of course. fox news middle east expert, and author and radio talk show host monica crowely monk the guests.
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lou: well, some conservative critics blasting a detroit city councilwoman who says president obama owes the city a federal bailout. her reasoning is rather direct. detroit overwhelmingly supported the president's re-election so she says the president should, obviously, return the favor. here is councilwoman watson saying just exactly that in a city council meeting yesterday. >> after the election of jimmy carter, alexander young, he went to washington, d.c.. he came back home with bacon. >> that's right. i remember that. >> that's what you do.
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that's what you do. this is a -- our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of the president, and there ought to be a quid pro quo. lou: detroit facing a budget deficit of more than $200 million and could be out of money by the end of the year. a california teachers union taking class warfare to two extremes. the california federation of @%achers producing and releasing an eight-minute long video on the website this week advocates higher taxes on the rich and to drive home their point, they show a wealthy 1% urinating on the 99 #%. these are teachers, mind you. >> when ordinary people wondered why rich people needed so much money, the 1% said, don't worry, this is good for you because it trickles down from us to you. someday you'll be rich, and the
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rules made for us will be your rules too. lou: well, that classy, imaginative, and thoughtful video mon rated by david. out with the word of the year, and for the first time ever, it's a tie. lucky for those interested in, well, free enterprise. socialism and capitalism, the must looked up words on its website this year, and according to merriam-webster's editor at large, there was a spike for socialism. that's right, on election day. up next, pro-democracy, protests turning increasingly violence in egypt. how long dii can -- how long can president morsi remain silent, and how long did president obama do nothing? we'll ask next.
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>> this is a test.
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lou: this is just in. a senior u.s. official as telling fox news that serious military has mixed chemical weapons and apparently is ready to use them. the chemical weapon has assembled a deadly nerve gas. the syriaa military has about 60 days in which to use this until it expires. it will then need to be destroyed. joining us now is the "a-team." james toronto, mary anne marsh, bradley graham. thank you all for being here.
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the national debt to the fiscal cliff. what are your thoughts? >> i don't think it matters all that much. i agree with bill clinton's comment from the earlier segment. >> i am agreeing with him as a matter of analysis. it doesn't appear that obama is aiming to do something big and constructive here. he is aiming for a victory on a small point of dispute. that is sort of the lowest common denominator. that is what both sides can agree upon. since obama doesn't seem to want to give anything to the republicans, that is where i think it will end up.
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lou: where do you think they will end up in a war that we will end up, far more importantly? >> i think that is a great question. i don't think anybody knows. to the point of the testing, i thought the interesting point was made by president obama at the business roundtable. working towards john engler his possession to extend debt ceiling providers. that is what we are talking about. >> what is broken is taxes and the dead and spending cuts. if the president were honest and in good faith, he wouldn't be needing with a roundtable. he would be up to capitol hill. as president is not serious. >> the other thing about the debt limit is not an authorization to go into as much
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does he want for five years or whatever. it is a set dollar amount. how much? lou: based on past five years of the bush administration, i can assure you that it will be a staggering figure. especially since we have a president who is inclined to spend like hell. i don't think there's any doubt about that. the president today is absolutely indulging in class warfare. >> i cannot ask folks who are middle-class seniors on medicare and young people who are trying to get student loans for college -- i can't ask them to sacrifice. and not ask anything of higher
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income folks. lou: what are your thoughts? >> i love the word ask her if is that this is a chervil contribution as opposed to money being taken forcibly. second, what's he asking anyone to sacrifice other than the people that he calls millionaires, people making over $200,000 per year? lou: maryanne, you have a thought on that? >> make no mistake. the president and the democrats are in the drivers seat on a the steel. they have public opinion with them. beeker vader does not read the fact is if we go over the cliff, they are going to blame the republicans fight two to one. the president knows that and he doesn't want to go over the cliff, but he's willing to.
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spume republicans and democrats come, the house and the senate and the white house, these taxes will be at his hand and his choice. what do you think? >> public opinion agrees that the taxes, especially on the upper income earners should go up. if we go over the cliff, the republicans are going to take the full blame. speaker boehner knows that. that is why he is trying to hold a caucus together. he doesn't have public opinion. lou: your opinion of speaker boehner is commendable. >> the president has his foot on the gas. people are going to win the president because the buck stops with him or it should. lou: thank you very much. i appreciate you all being here. now it's time for your comments.
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rick said we are not amused with bob costas comments on the murder suicide. is everyone who doesn't agree with you a left-wing radical? no. another common is that the media has been talking about the nfl murder suicide. now we are talking about limited citizens gun rights. when we talk about the drugs that were taken by the nfl player? thank you for being with us tonight can i help you?
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